Ask 10 average Americans where
the phrase "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" appears, and seven of
them couldn't tell you. But as we celebrate 223 years of independence, it's worth asking
why, and what can be done about that.

America more than
any other nation is based on an idea. We aren't racially, ethnically,
religiously or geographically defined like other nations. Rather, America was born
and lives in the tradition of liberty and law.

And no words in the English language better express the American
project than the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be
self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving
their just powers from the consent of the governed."

Americans must learn these truths if we are to excel as a nation
and a people. Yet few Americans know the words. For many they are a distant echo of the
past barely heard and dimly understood .

But some courageous state lawmakers are fighting to restore
America's founding principles by reaching out to the next generation. Unfortunately, they
are meeting fierce political opposition.

Take New Jersey. State Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll, a
Republican, sponsored a bill that would require public school students there to recite
those sentences from the Declaration, along with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Why? Carroll worries that kids don't have a good sense of why
America is special. "The language of this little passage . . . sets forth in one
little paragraph the entire basis for the American government," he explained.

The bill passed the assembly but now languishes in the state
senate. The reason: Garden State liberals object to words like "men,"
"Creator," and "right to life." They say the men who founded the
country are bad role models for kids, and that their ideas are old hat.

Typical is the claim of Assemblywoman Nia Gill, who said that
"at the time these words were written only white men, and only white men with
property, were perceived to be the benficiaries of these words."

This is absurd and false. In New Jersey, for instance, women --
and even blacks - were voting by the late 1700s.

But Gill's view is the conventional wisdom. And New Jersey
isnt the only state where this sort of battle is being fought.

In California, a '96 law requires high school students to read
the Declaration, the Constitution and other important founding-era documents. Again,
Democrats hammered the bill. One assemblyman said it "contradicts freedom (and) by
its nature is calculated to teach fascism, not democracy."

Nevada State Sen. Mark James authored a similar bill after
visiting schools in his Las Vegas district. He found that most of the students couldn't
answer the simplest questions on a U.S. citizenship test. James's bill also passed, but
only after a contentious 2-1/2 hour debate -- longer than any legislative debate in recent
memory.

Why are the words and ideals of the Declaration so hated? Carroll
thinks it's because liberals see America as "an ongoing horror show" of racist
and sexist oppression.

That may be part of it. A better explanation may be that the
principles of liberty and equality the founders enshrined in the Declaration stand in
direct opposition to the modern liberal agenda.

The Founders were clear: Human beings are born with rights, which
come before government. The role of government is limited to protecting those rights, not
making up new ones, such as Franklin Roosevelts "freedom from fear."

Seen that way, it's easy to understand why so many liberal
politicians oppose teaching these ideas to children. They may actually grow up believing
in limited government, equality under the law, and no taxation without representation.

The Declaration sets forth a truth  "applicable to all
men and all times," in Lincoln's words -- that stands in the way of tyranny. It also
sets a standard of freedom and equality. Americans haven't always met that standard. But
it is the standard every American must learn and know if we wish to remain a free people.
It is the standard we ought to honor and celebrate this Independence Day.